


Soulmate

by orphan_account



Series: soulmate au [2]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: M/M, Soulmate AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-24
Updated: 2014-10-24
Packaged: 2018-02-22 10:17:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2504222
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gadreel learns the name of his soulmate at age five, but with the life he has had it is better to simply not think of soulmates and happy endings.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Soulmate

**Author's Note:**

> Gadreel's POV of Soulmark

Gadreel is five years old when his soulmark lights up his small arm. He is helping his mother Naomi tend to the family garden while it happens. The smell of petunias surrounds the pair, and when Naomi asks what Gadreel's arm reads, Gadreel reads out proudly  _Sam._ The letters are seared into his skin in gorgeous red scrawl: a mix of his handwriting, Sam's, and any other soulmates that Sam has. Gadreel traces the letters in awe. One of them has overpoweringly neat penmanship - almost as neat as Naomi's. 

-

The afternoon of the rise of his soulmark is one of only nice memories Gadreel has of his childhood.

-

The family is only holding on by the sheer force of Naomi's will. Their father unexpectedly barrages back into their lives, Michael and Luke flocking to him. Gabriel runs away when it becomes apparent the man isn't planning to leave; their father is a cruel, uncaring man. Gadreel stays quiet, he does what he is told, and he watches. As Naomi and the monster that is their father dance around each other in custody battles, the bright garden Gadreel slaved over for many years with Naomi withers. There is no time for it anymore with bills to pay and rebellious older Luke to avoid and quietly furious Michael to obey. 

When Gadreel wakes up in the middle of the night to the sound of his mother's screams, he rushes out of bed. Luke is stood over Naomi's limp body. His knife is dripping a gruesome amount of red, and when Gadreel looks at his mother, all he can see is blood. Luke smiles at him. That's the last thing Gadreel remembers before being pulled and dropped in the pool of blood on the carpeted floor with the knife wrestled into his hand. 

When the police come, called by Michael, Gadreel is carted away for Naomi's murder. It is only when Michael phones that he figures out that Luke misinterpreted a bitter comment made by their father about "getting rid of that fucking bitch," to be permission to commit murder. It is the only phone call Gadreel gets in juvie, and there is silence when he graduates to prison four years later.

He kills an inmate that tries to rape a smaller cellmate. If he is going to rot in here, he might as well have actually done something. 

-

He is released early for good behavior, but mostly he is released to make room for new people with bigger rap sheets; this prison is pathetically small. The first thing Gadreel does is leave the neighborhood; it is a hellhole, and everyone stares at the mother murderer. 

He forges himself a new identity, Ezekiel Sarver. It is an illegal process, a favor owed him from an inmate released even earlier than him, but Gadreel can't wait for this to occur legally. The sooner he sheds his previous identity the better. He spares a thought for what his soulmate would think of him if they ever met. It is not a happy thought, so Gadreel stops thinking of soulmates and the faint smell of petunias forever associated with the name _Sam_. He is twenty-six.

-

Ezekiel Sarver lasts for a long nineteen years. Gadreel drops the name on the behest of Abner, his only friend. Abner found out his true name the one and only time Gadreel got drunk in his life. He holds Gadreel's calloused hands as he coaxes his friend into explaining his reasoning for illegally operating under a new name. While the tale of cruel siblings and jail swims through the air, Abner stays by Gadreel's side. There he stays when the tale is finished, and there he stays the day after that. 

Abner helps build Gadreel's life back up now that everything Gadreel worked for as Ezekiel crumbles, and he moves with Gadreel to escape the authorities.

-

It is a year after moving that Gadreel meets his soulmate. He is trying to find a better brand of soap when he hears someone ask for him.

"Gadreel?"

 A quiet gasp escapes Gadreel. He has never heard that voice before, and his name is not widespread enough anymore for just anyone to know it. Green eyes and head hesitantly turn to look in the speaker's direction. The man is very tall and muscular, Gadreel notes. Big enough to be a challenge should he mean harm.

"I am Gadreel. Why?"

The man runs a hand through his hair, and he licks his lips before speaking. "I'm Sam? I think I'm one of your soulmates?"

The world stops. Gadreel feels trapped. He was counting on never encountering his soulmate; the Earth is definitely large enough for them to never even have the chance to meet. Gadreel swallows thickly.

"Truly?"

"Yeah, I mean, you're on my arm?" 

Gadreel looks at where Sam is frantically rolling up his flannel sleeve. In identical handwriting to the  _Sam_ on Gadreel's own arm is a red  _Gadreel_ and a purple  _Castiel._  Panic rises in Gadreel's gut; Sam's actually his soulmate. He nods to show Sam he looked.

"Do you want to maybe talk back at my place? Yours?" cuts threw Gadreel's haze to be followed by, "Just in the parking lot?"

Gadreel thinks the options over. If he declines, he will forever wonder about Sam, wonder if he would have accepted everything Gadreel is and was. But if Gadreel accepts the offer, he will have to face the crushing disappointment if Sam is not understanding. Gadreel pushes down his worry.

"Whatever you prefer, Sam."

"Uh, my place? I have to deliver." Sam waves a box of tampons he has in his hand.

"Of course, Sam."

-

Sam agrees to date him, much to Gadreel's wonderment. With Dean and Castiel hovering about him, Sam seemed to have a perfect little life carved out for himself. When he calls Abner in astonishment after their first date, Abner tells Gadreel to stop overthinking things and belittling Sam's choice to give Gadreel a chance. Gadreel listens to his friend's advice; after all, if Gadreel had not listened to Abner all those years ago he would have never met Sam. 

As their courtship continues, Gadreel realizes that he really does not understand much of what Sam communicates to him in body language. Gadreel is frustrated with this discovery; much of what Sam is feeling is conveyed not in what he says, but how he moves. Awkwardly, he asks Castiel for help in this matter. The laugh Sam's soulmate lets out is light, and he readily agrees so long as Gadreel also brings the matter up with Sam himself. Gadreel readily does so. That conversation is one of the first of many awkward discussions between the two.

When they have gotten comfortable together, Gadreel asks to discuss his life before Sam. He warns that it might change Sam's opinion of him, and he begs that Sam be kind in his judgment. Sam cups his face. He reminds Gadreel that they are in this thing together, and it is who Gadreel is now that Sam is interested in. The relief Gadreel feels for bearing open his sins and the relief Sam feels for finally understanding what was up with his soulmark brings both a new level of contentment within themselves, bringing them closer than before. 

Gadreel smiles when he stops to think how blessed he is.


End file.
